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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| panama Newbie Panama babelpoint.com Joined 6597 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English | Message 145 of 346 08 September 2006 at 11:54am | IP Logged | ||
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You have to start with the languages that are the most closest to your mother language. Although sometimes it can be different. Here is my path:
1. Spanish is my mother Language 2. I've learnt Russian because I went to the Soviet Union to study Lingustics and spent 6 years there. 3. I've learnt German, because this was my first foreign language at University in the Soviet Union. Later, I was happy to live in Germany for 12 years 4. I've learnt French, because this was my second foreign language at university in the Soviet Union 5. I've learnt Italian, becase I had to finance my study in the Soviet Union (after the Perestrojka I've lost my Stipendja) and had to go to Munich during vacation to work in an Italian pizzeria and most of the italiani did not speak German. Later I used to organize the transport of humanitarian aid for Afghanistan through the Baltic States and Russia. Our customer was WFP (Word Food Programme) which is located in Rome and I could practice Italian a lot. 6. I've learnt Portuguese, because I good friend from Angola wanted to learn Spanish in the Soviet Union and he did not want to pay me for lessons. So he payed me with Portuguese lessons. Later I bought the Assimil course to improve pronunciation. 7. I've learned Esperanto, because I wanted to avoid my first German teacher (before university) in the Soviet Union, this was during the podgotovitelnyj fakultet. I was surprised when I went to the first Esperanto lesson, because the teacher was my German teacher. So I could not avoid him at all :-) 8. I've learnt Latin, because I was better than my fellow Russian students at the university. Perhaps because Latin is similar to Spanish or viceversa :-) 9. I've learnt Swedish (a little bit) because I used to go to Stockholm to sell Vodka from Russia (10 bottles for 1 dollar) for 10 dollar per bottle in the Stockholm train station. This was in 1989, 1990, 1991. I had to stop doing this after the police catched me, but I was a poor student from Latin America who studed in the Soviet Union. The police was so kind and I had only to promise not to do this any more. 10. I've learned Japanese, because Kanji are difficult to learn. So I did a website because I did not want to forget them. The site can be found somewhere on the Web. 11. My dedication to English was never enough. I always wanted to learn other languages. But as we say in Spanish "el mundo es una espera y uno nunca sabe donde va a caer" "the world is a sphere and you never know where you will fall", and now I am in the UK since two years, with my wife and two children, speaking German at home and English and French at work, and listening to Radio Svoboda in Russian, Radio Japan in languages many languages, most of which I do not understand. Basically I am learning all these languages. I don't think that somebody can have learnt a language. You have to read, speak and listen to the languages otherwise you forget them very, very quickly. Regards Edited by panama on 11 September 2006 at 4:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 6960 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 146 of 346 08 September 2006 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Basically, you've just gone about and actually learned ten languages instead of writing down a list of which ones you'd like to learn. Good for you!
It sounds like you've had a fascinating life and you appear to have maximised the opportunities presented to you for language learning. Oh, by the way, welcome to the forum :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7126 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 147 of 346 08 September 2006 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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My top ten
1) Chinese - to talk to the most people in the world. 2) Japanese - the culture is really interesting and it seems you get a lot of free vocabulary from Chinese as well as the writing systerm. 3) Bhasa Indonesian - because I hear that it's the most easiest language in the world. 4) Tibetan - I'd love to learn more about Tibetan Bhuddism but if it turned out that I could just as well use Mandarin in Tibet then perhaps I would change this choice to perhaps Swahili, Thai or some exotic west African language that's widely spoken. 5) German - it would be good to relearn the language I was exposed to as a child. 6) French - because I learnt it at school. 7) Spanish again because I learnt a little at school and you can travel to South America with it. 8) Portuguese it's just too similar to Spanish not to learn it and i'd love to visit Brazil. 9) Russian - because you can travel to the old Scoviet block with this and it seems a good intellectual challenge. 10) Arabic - i've travelled to a few arabic countries so it would be good to learn a couple of its dialects. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FM_Moltke Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 6564 days ago 54 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, German, French Studies: Polish, Latin | Message 148 of 346 11 October 2006 at 10:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Ten Languages...being a little fantastic here :)
Assuming a culturally neutral or european biased starting point, I'm going to say: 1) English- For better or worse, the lingua franca of the world. Large inventory of literature and published materials. 2) French- The former lingua franca and necessary to understand anything of the world pre WW-2. Essential to art, music, literature 3) German- For the academics, historians, theologians, musicians, etc. 4), 5) Italian, Spanish- Italian I think has a greater cultural reach, but Spanish is more useful for practical matters such as travel and business. I think these are the most important five...if you have these five then it depends on your interests. Russian, Japanese, Mandarin... If you are interested in European history Latin and Greek are optimal. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MissMelon Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6579 days ago 28 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 149 of 346 12 October 2006 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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These would be 10 I choose not necessarily for importance, but for interest.
1. English* (mother tongue and obviously useful) 2. French* (I find it pleasing to the ears, I also like Russian history, and French was spoken in the Czarist court.) 3. German* (I hope to visit Europe, I hope knowledge of both French and German is enough.) 4. Welsh* (Not very useful, but its my favorite Celtic language and I love the word...hehe) 5. Tibetan (Not a fan of Asian Languages, but I one day hope to see its independance and like their traditions) 6. Russian* (My favorite country, but its difficulty holds me back.) 7. Esperanto (No specific reason, just because.) 8. Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal are two nice countries.) 9. Spanish (Spain is a nice country, and latin america travel is inexpensive.) 10. Perhaps a Native American Language* (A little help on finding websites to learn a few?) * = I definatley WILL learn Edited by MissMelon on 12 October 2006 at 8:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brumblebee Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6720 days ago 206 posts - 212 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 150 of 346 20 December 2006 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've probably posted on this thread before, but I've come up with a more updated list:
(besides English and Spanish) Russian, because I love the history and culture. French*, because of its chic factor German*, so if I want to get a PhD from a top university Icelandic, because my friend speaks it. Polish, same as Russian Estonian, for its uniqueness Wolof or another African Language Croatian Romanian Lithuanian *If it were based on want vs. usefullness I would have probably exchanged French with Korean and German with Hungarian. Edited by brumblebee on 26 December 2006 at 12:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6713 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 151 of 346 21 December 2006 at 4:46am | IP Logged | ||
Any idea which one? The one in widest daily use, I suspect, is actually Inuit-Greenlandic, even though you'd have to go a fair distance to talk to a native speaker. The language is in daily use across the Canadian north and in Greenland. It's spoken in Alaska too, but I think it's being squeezed out by English there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brumblebee Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6720 days ago 206 posts - 212 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 152 of 346 21 December 2006 at 11:03am | IP Logged | ||
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You could probably find several materials for Cherokee. I know that there is at least one newspaper printed in Cherokee. But that might just be available for residents of Northeast Oklahoma, I don't know.
It's the Native American language that I would pick, but I technically live in "Cherokee Nation" and I know the principal chief's daughter. So my opinion is a little bit biased. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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